“Placeshifting” refers to shifting the viewing location of television or other media content from one place (e.g., a home television) to another. Many commercially-available placeshifting devices and systems now allow viewers to placeshift content from their home televisions, television receivers, set top boxes (STBs), digital video recorders (DVRs) and/or the like to any other locations where network access can be obtained. Media content can be “placeshifted”, for example, by providing a streaming media connection from a placeshifting device to a mobile phone, portable computer and/or other media player that may be located in a different room, building or other remote place that is nevertheless accessible via a local area and/or wide area network. Some modern STBs, media players and other video receivers now incorporate on-board placeshifting functionality for their users. Other users receive placeshifted media content via a dedicated placeshifting appliance, such as the SLINGBOX product available from Sling Media Inc. of Foster City, Calif., USA.
While placeshifting is becoming more commonplace, many viewers do not yet have access to their own personal placeshifting systems. These viewers may nevertheless desire to obtain access to streaming media programs, such as television programs, movies or other content that may be available. Subscribers to a cable or direct broadcast satellite (DBS) service, for example, may wish to obtain streaming media content that may be provided as part of their paid subscriptions. Other viewers may simply wish to gain access to online television, movies on demand and/or other online content in a convenient manner. Current techniques for hosting and distributing media content over a network, however, tend to be expensive and cumbersome to build and maintain.
It is therefore desirable to create systems and methods that allow improved access to streaming media content in a manner that is relatively efficient to implement and use. These and other desirable features and characteristics will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background section.